


Bear in Mind

by TheFreakWithTheWings



Series: Mama Bear [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence, Padmé Amidala Lives, Suitless Vader, Vader's a little unhinged
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-05
Updated: 2016-04-05
Packaged: 2018-05-31 12:41:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6470335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFreakWithTheWings/pseuds/TheFreakWithTheWings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vader begins the hunt for his missing wife.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bear in Mind

To say that Vader was angry was akin to claiming that being stabbed with a lightsaber only burned a little. He had briefly sated it by taking out the Separatist leaders, but then Obi-Wan had shown up, sparking his fury to even greater heights.

Padme had betrayed him, had brought Obi-Wan to kill him.

He regretted it now, choking her. He hadn’t been thinking too clearly at the time, conscious thought swept away by anger, but now Vader realized that Obi-Wan had tricked Padme into betraying him. He was, however, furious that Padme had kept such a big secret from him. How could she not tell him that she was a Shifter? Did she think he would hate her? He was incapable of hating her, not truly.

But now they were gone; Kenobi had kidnapped his wife. Vader had already planned on killing him for turning Padme against him, but now he wanted to draw it out painfully. That Jedi had no right! Kenobi knew nothing of love, much less what he and Padme felt for each other.

Kenobi hadn’t been able to get the ship away fast enough though. Vader had managed to attach a tracker to it, and after he contacted his Master, he would hunt down the Jedi and get his wife back. 

He stalked back onto his ship, wiped the last traces of tears off of his cheeks, and commed his Master.

“Lord Vader, have the Separatist leaders been taken care of?” Sidious asked.

“Yes, my Master, but-” Vader began, but was cut off.

“Good, good. I need you to return to Coruscant now.”

“But, Master-” he tried to speak again.

“Are you disputing my orders, my young apprentice?” Sidious demanded pleasantly.

“No Master.” Vader denied, his anger rising again. Why would his Master not listen? He didn’t have time to return to Coruscant, not now.

“I can sense your anger. Do you seek to usurp me already, apprentice?” Sidious’ face twisted into a snarl, yellow eyes flashing.

“No, Master.”

“I expect to see you in a few hours,” Sidious said, then disconnected the comm.

“Yes Master,” Vader said to nothing.

For a moment he considered disobeying, chasing off after Padme and Kenobi despite his Master’s orders, leave Sidious to his beloved Empire. But he couldn’t. Not when there was still the chance that Padme and the baby could die. It was only one more month before the baby was supposed to be due, so Vader would have to learn the technique invented by Plagueis quickly. Then he could kill Sidious and lay the entire galaxy at Padme’s feet, raise their child in true peace.

He started up his ship and flew back to Coruscant, leaving the fire and lava of Mustafar behind him.

0o0o0

After hours and hours of a completely useless ceremony designed to introduce his new role to the Empire, Vader was angry enough that his control over his temper was fracturing. Finally, _finally_ , all that he had left to do was make his last report to the Emperor, then he was free.

Vader bowed before his Master’s throne. “Master, is there anything else?”

“Yes, I just received a report that I believe might interest you. Apparently Senator Amidala has fled Coruscant in the company of the Jedi Kenobi. I’m afraid your wife has likely betrayed you, if she is keeping Kenobi’s company,” Sidious said pleasantly.

“I know, Master. They came to Mustafar, but they escaped before I could capture them,” Vader explained. It was basically the truth.

“Need I remind you that the Jedi are traitors? Why, Yoda himself tried to assassinate me not long ago, and now I hear that you let them go!” Sidious screeched.

“I was about to pursue them when you called me back Master,” Vader tried to explain.

Lightning shot out from Sidious’ hands, and Vader collapsed, just barely catching himself on his hands before his face smashed into the floor. The pain was unbearable, and he screamed with it. Vader had been electrocuted before, but Force Lightning always felt worse. He didn’t know how long it lasted, only that he had to endure it. Sidious would not be the one to kill him, not now, not ever. Later, when his Master had finished torturing him, Vader promised himself that he would rip his heart out and feed it to the worms. 

“Get up, you fool,” Sidious snarled. “You must hunt down those traitors and execute them.”

“But Master,” Vader gasped. “Padmé is no traitor.”

Sidious snorted. “She is aiding and abetting a Jedi. That is treason. Don’t worry, your child is not a traitor, we won’t blame him for the crimes of his mother.”

Vader gritted his teeth, sensing that any more protests would only earn him more torture. “As you wish, my Master. I shall return as soon as I find them.”

0o0o0

Vader finally located the tracker to a small asteroid named Polis Massa. The asteroid was home to a medical facility. He felt small flickers of fear when he saw it.

Had Padmé’s injuries been more severe than he thought? Had his nightmares played out while he was busy on Coruscant? Did he kill her, and their child with her?

No, she had been alive; he had seen her flee from him. Maybe it had been Obi-Wan who was injured. He had defeated Grievous and somehow survived Order 66. The odds of him escaping completely unscathed were low.

He couldn’t sense either of them in the Force, but Kenobi could be shielding them. 

A medical droid was there to greet him when Vader exited the ship, the hood of his robe over his head in order to conceal his identity.

“Hello. I am G4-XO, the receptionist. Are you in need of treatment?”

Vader ignored the droid’s question as he swept past it into the medical facility. Unfortunately, it followed him.

“My scans indicate that you are currently suffering from dehydration, exhaustion, smoke inhalation, and neurochemical damage that will require deeper scans to fully diagnose. Do you wish…”

The sound of the droid’s voice faded as Vader strode deeper into the facility, intent on finding an actual doctor.

He heard a door whoosh open behind him moments after the Force warned him of the presence of another being. Vader whirled around, his robes swirling with him, to see a Zabrak woman with long black hair, wearing a white lab coat, her eyes glued to a datapad, enter the hallway.

“Doctor,” he called out as she turned down the hall, catching her attention.

The doctor smiled politely. “Can I help you?”

“I’m looking for my wife. She’s pregnant, about 8 months along, and she was kidnapped,” Vader said, hoping that playing on a doctor’s naturally compassionate nature would get him what he wanted.

The only sign that the doctor had even heard him was a slight narrowing of her eyes, but it was enough. She knew where Padmé was, Vader was sure of it.

“I’m not at liberty to divulge any of my patients’ information. Doctor-patient confidentiality,” the doctor sniffed.

Vader channeled his surge of anger into the Force and used it to push the doctor into a wall and pin her there, putting a light pressure around her neck. He relished the look of fear in her eyes as he stalked towards her. 

“Where is she?” he hissed, inches from her face.

The doctor glared back at him. “Gone,” she spat out.

Vader faltered. Surely she couldn’t mean- he would have felt it if- Padmé was not dead. She couldn’t be.

“Tell me what you know,” he commanded. When the doctor was silent, he tightened the Force hold around her neck a little. “Tell me!”

“She was… in labor,” the doctor gasped. “Dying… her trachea… partly crushed… bleeding out from birth.”

Vader abruptly released the doctor in shock, not even noticing as the woman slumped to the floor, coughing. He felt as if his heart had frozen in his chest.

Had he killed Padmé? 

“Shifters heal faster -ahem- than their non-Shifter -ahem hem- counterparts, which is why we saved -ahem- both her and the babies,” the doctor coughed out.

He felt like he had just been struck by lightning, but in a good way. The constant burn that had persisted in his eyes since he had pledged himself to Sidious faded. Padmé was alive! And their baby- wait, babies?

“Babies?” he asked.

“Female and male. Both completely healthy and completely out of your reach,” the doctor announced smugly.

The burning returned to Vader’s eyes as his rage resurfaced. “What did you do?”

“She had clearly been attacked by a Force user; I gave her pamphlets for women’s shelters and didn’t ask questions in case you came to call,” the doctor sneered.

Vader recoiled as if struck. “I would _never_ hurt her.”

_Except you did,_ a small part of him whispered.

_She betrayed me! It was her fault,_ he insisted.

_Don’t lie to yourself._

The doctor rolled her eyes. “I don’t know what you Jedi think counts as hurting someone, but a we normal people count inflicting nearly fatal damage to a person as hurting them at the least.”

“I’m not a Jedi,” Vader snarled. Folding his anger around him like a cloak, Vader picked the doctor up with the Force and flung her away, not caring where she landed.

It didn’t take him long to find the pamphlets. Vader grabbed all of them, even though he knew the odds of Padmé actually going to one of the women’s shelters was low. They wouldn’t admit Kenobi, after all.

As he walked back to his ship, something suddenly occurred to Vader. His dream hadn’t come true; Padmé had survived childbirth. He no longer had any need for help from Sidious. He owed the other Sith _nothing_. What was to stop him from cutting Sidious out of his life and his head? If Vader left the bond there, Sidious could use it to find him, and he wouldn’t be pleased with the quest to find Padmé.

So, Vader did the only sensible thing: he destroyed first his comm and then his bond to his former Sith Master. He would, of course, have to do intensive meditation to remove any lingering traces of Sidious from his mind, but that could wait until after he found his wife.

And maybe, now that he was no longer working with Sidious, he could convince Obi-Wan to help him kill the bastard and give the galaxy to Padmé.


End file.
